It was unlike anything you’ll currently find at the Hilton’s restaurant, Wild Sage. However, Vinoya plans to launch a new bistro-style menu in January, before heading to Kelowna for the early February Gold Medal Plates national competition.

This is Vinoya’s third year working at the Hilton, and Saturday marked his third appearance at Gold Medal Plates. He assisted Geoffrey Caswell-Murphy in 2015 and Curtis Toth in 2016.

“I said to myself, ‘I need to go to the podium,’ ” said Vinoya, whose first job in Canada eight years ago was at The Keg in Banff.

“That’s my dream, because I really want to get back the gold medal for Regina. It’s been a while.”

Milton Rebello won the bronze at nationals in 2013. Louise Lu, his wife and business partner at Skye Café and Bistro, took bronze in the 2017 Regina competition.

Her dish included a dehydrated pear chip, a slice of foie gras and a candied pistachio.

Joel Williams of The Capitol won silver with his “Duck Three Ways,” all presented on a wave of golden butternut squash puree, decorated with fennel greens and magenta harukei pickled turnips.

The first piece of duck was a rillette mixed with pork shoulder, which he described as “pureed pre-pate, so it’s not fully smoothed out like a normal pate.” Its companion was an arugula tapioca crisp, like crackling green bubbles all conjoined.

The second was a chunk of lightly smoked duck breast cooked sous-vide — boiled in vacuum-sealed plastic.

With eight chefs, Gold Medal Plates is an amazing showcase of creativity — but it was no small feat to try all eight plates and their specially paired wine (or beer in Fitzpatrick’s case, or whisky in Forrest’s).

The Delta Hotel ballroom was packed full as could be, but there were few tables to rest a wine glass or a plate. Anyway, those tables were cocktail style, not designed for dinner plates.

With a wine glass in hand and a plate in the other, concurrent eating and drinking was next to impossible — unless one resorted to pie-eating-competition-style ingestion.

Gold Medal Plates, which takes place in 11 Canadian cities this year, was founded in 2003 as a fundraiser for Olympic athletes.

Today, said event co-founder Karen Blair, it is the largest expo of wine in Canada.

A new initiative this year, Gold Medal Pints, featured a few local brewers, namely Regina brewers District, Pile O’ Bones, Bushwakker and Rebellion, and Black Bridge of Swift Current.

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